Ch.1128Finale

A clash of death like a tidal wave and the collision of flickering life.

“Grooooar!”

The stone giant roars as it swings a sword of light, while a thousand skeletons cling to its legs like leeches, scattering tiny rock fragments like blood.

– Rumble!

Beyond the half-collapsed ceiling, pure white cross spears pour down like heavy rain, and a wave of spirits surges like rapids, colliding with the downpour and dispersing with an eerie wail.

A meteor shower of pure white. Lightning strikes. Black spray. A tidal wave of rotting flesh. Screams and roars.

An earthquake shakes the desert as the collapsed ground sinks with the sand, and a fountain of sand erupts with a boom, raising yellowish-brown clouds over the land.

A stage where the main performance has ended and the lead actors have all departed.

The epilogue of supporting actors—what began as a duel, escalated to war, and became a disaster—once again shook the broken and shattered desert.

How much time had passed since then?

– Whoosh…

As the thick sand fog settled like a fallen veil…

– Fwaaaak!

A pillar of black light pierced through the night desert, stabbing the sky, and then, in the next moment, scattered like dust like a mirage.

And then silence came.

A deathly quiet silence, announcing the end of the calamity that had seemed like the arrival of doomsday.

The fierce battle of supporting actors, witnessed only by the gods above, quietly died down like embers in ashes.

All that remained was a silent ruin where nothing and no one was left.

What ending did the stage of the late-arriving supporting actors meet? Only those who survived and the celestial audience knew the answer.

At least until now.

Crack.

…But soon everyone would know.

The deep and massive crack, irreversibly etched into Heaven’s Wall that had been protecting them from the past.

– Crunch.

Slowly, but surely.

The Wall of Elpinel had begun to break.

—-

Meanwhile.

“Ughh…”

Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro, who had been transferred to the rear base of the holy army, could no longer withstand the exhaustion from accumulated fatigue and depletion of energy, and collapsed, falling asleep immediately.

Of course, that was just sleep from Haschal’s perspective, but to the clergy who witnessed it, it appeared as if their goddess had suffered a fatal injury and collapsed unconscious.

“Lord Median?! Lord Median!!”

“Emergency! Emergencyyy!! Lord Median has collapsed!!!”

Naturally, the holy army was thrown into chaos.

Healing priests who came running frantically laid Haschal on a stretcher and frantically poured all kinds of recovery miracles, while paladins guarded the stretcher with faces full of determination.

While the evacuation team was making a fuss, the rest of the personnel instantly remodeled one of the command tents into a private hospital room exclusively for Haschal.

And not just an ordinary private room, but an ultra-luxurious hospital room purified to the level of a sterile room, under the pretext that any inadequacy would be disrespectful to the goddess.

“This bedsheet has a stain on it! Wash it again with holy water!”

“What is this dust here? …What? You didn’t think to purify under the drawer? Don’t you know excuses are sinful?”

“Is the lamp filled with holy oil? Good, next let’s set up a purification formation around the room-“

If Haschal had been awake, she would have been so embarrassed that she would have flown away.

“Fortunately, there are no serious injuries. She’s just asleep from overexertion. She’ll wake up naturally after getting enough rest.”

The holy army’s commotion finally calmed down only after Agnes, the Saint of Menes, personally examined Haschal and confirmed that there was no major problem with the goddess’s body.

—-

The next day, Agnes dispatched a small reconnaissance team to the site where the battle with the evil god had taken place.

“I believe the danger has been eliminated based on the circumstances… but it’s too early to be certain. Don’t lower your guard, and move carefully with caution.”

“Yes! Saint Menesilia!”

The desert, quiet again as if nothing had happened. Haschal’s safe return after facing the evil god alone.

Based on these two pieces of circumstantial information, Agnes judged that Haschal had succeeded in subjugating—or at least repelling—the evil god that had descended upon the great desert.

Of course, not just her, but everyone who had participated in the battle against the evil god was convinced of Haschal’s victory.

If Haschal had been defeated by the evil god and fled, by now this rear base would have been devastated by the evil god’s attack in pursuit of Haschal.

‘…Even so, we can’t just leave without confirming.’

Of course, she wasn’t so irresponsible and thoughtless as to say “Everything seems resolved, so let’s go home~” without checking the site. Agnes was not that kind of person, so she chose to investigate the site instead of a quick return.

Four days passed.

The demigod of stars, depleted of energy, still hadn’t awakened from her long sleep, and the reconnaissance team that arrived at the devastated battlefield discovered something unexpected in a deep, dark pit like an abyss.

“…What is this?”

“A mechanical egg… a dwarven relic perhaps…?”

A stench that felt like it would rot your lungs the moment you breathed in. In the corner of a pitch-black underground lake where pieces of rotting corpses floated, a massive metal egg stood like an iceberg.

– Tick, tick, click, creak, whirr…

A bumpy, streamlined shell that looked like it had been made by crushing and compressing massive metal parts, then forcibly joining them together.

From inside came the constant sounds of unknown mechanical devices—metal sounds, friction sounds, vibration sounds—and occasionally, white steam-like substance leaked out with a hissing sound.

“…Should we destroy it?”

One of the paladins in the reconnaissance team muttered with a voice full of vigilance, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Well… I think we should report to the Saint first. I’m not sure if we can destroy it with our power, and we don’t even know what kind of machine it is.”

Another paladin standing next to him shook his head in objection.

As mere paladins, they couldn’t identify the nature or function of the metal egg, so rather than recklessly touching it, it would be better to wait for instructions from their superiors.

“Indeed… in the worst case, it might explode or attack us the moment it’s disturbed, like some kind of weapon.”

“Right, Saint Menesilia told us to act with caution. Let’s refrain from touching something we don’t understand.”

The other paladins agreed.

If they had been careless enough to recklessly touch an unknown machine and bring unnecessary trouble, they wouldn’t have been assigned to this reconnaissance team in the first place.

“So we leave the egg alone for now… but what about this lake? It seems to be full of undead creatures.”

Having decided not to touch the “mechanical egg,” the remaining issue was the vast pool of dark mana that had formed into a lake.

“We brought holy water and holy oil, right? Let’s set up a barrier with those. We might not be able to purify it completely, but we can at least contain it from spreading further.”

The reconnaissance team carved ritual formations around the lake for a barrier, buried consecrated daggers or candlesticks at each corner, and then poured holy water and holy oil over the entire formation to create a purification barrier.

– Woooong!

As the completed barrier enveloped the entire lake with brilliant holy light, the dark mana waves touched by the light hissed, boiled, and dispersed as steam.

“…Good, perfect.”

“Though it won’t last long.”

A young paladin clicked his tongue, pointing to where the barrier met the lake.

At the contact surface between the dark mana emitting black steam and the holy light.

Since the purifying power contained in the barrier was not infinite, it was certain that if left unattended, it would eventually weaken and collapse.

“As long as it’s maintained properly, it will hold as needed.”

Of course, this was only if the barrier set up by the paladins was left unattended.

“Dine, Jin, Rio. We’ll stay here and maintain the barrier, so you three return to the base and report the situation here to Saint Menesilia.”

The paladins of the reconnaissance team had no intention of wasting the barrier they had worked hard to create, so they divided their personnel, sending only three paladins back to the rear base.

The rest set up a temporary camp next to the black lake and devoted themselves to maintaining the barrier all day while taking care of their meals and rest there.

Five days later.

– Whoooom…!

The three reconnaissance team members who had headed to the rear base returned to the airspace above the underground lake aboard a massive airship.

“So we need to move this onto that net?”

“Yes. I would appreciate your help, Lord Demian.”

Along with Demian, who was dispatched to move the “mechanical egg” deep underground onto the cargo loading net installed under the airship.

Demian spread his wings, descended underground, and made contact with the “mechanical egg”—Fafnir in dormant state—and successfully transferred it.

The mechanical egg was heavier than anyone had imagined, so he had to use most of the Karma he had barely recovered with just one transfer.

And so, Fafnir’s mechanical egg was transported to the Holy State via airship.